C. E. H. OSTENFELD'S WESTERN AUSTRALIAN PLANTS IN THE HERBARIUM, NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS, GLASNEVIN.

ABSTRACT. Carl Ostenfeld, a Danish botanist, made a large collection of plants in Western Australia in 1914.
A partial set of his specimens is housed in the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin (DBN); the specimens are catalogued
and important specimens, including isotypes, are noted.

INTRODUCTION

In 1922, the National Museum (of Science and Art), Dublin purchased a partial set of Ostenfeld's collection of Western Australian plants (Plantae ex Australia occidentali).
The collection of about 670 numbers was registered under number 448, but was not then incorporated in the museum herbarium. After the amalgamation of the National Museum
herbarium and the National Botanic Gardens' herbarium in 1970 at Glasnevin, the material was mounted and in 1976 it was incorporated in the herbarium (DBN) (see Taxon 1970).
The appended catalogue of the material was made prior to incorporation.

C. E. H. OSTENFELD-BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Carl Emll Hansen Ostenfeld was born in 1873 in Randers, Denmark, and graduated from the University of Copenhagen. He was Keeper of the Botanical Museum, Copenhagen, from 1900 until 1918 when he became Professor of Botany at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen. In 1923 he was appointed Professor of Botany at the University of Copenhagen and thus also Director of the Botanical Garden, Copenhagen (Olrik 1974, Skovsted 1974, Hansen 1974). Ostenfeld died in 1931.

In 1914, Ostenfeld was invited to visit Australia by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, to take part in the annual meetings which were held in the capital cities of the different Australian states. An accident on board ship, during the voyage from Europe, prevented Ostenfeld from fulfilling the original purpose; instead he had to go to hospital in Perth, capital of Western Australia (Ostenfeld 1916, van Steenis-Kruseman 1958). He left hospital after the B.A.A.S. meetings had concluded and instead investigated the botany of Western Australia (Ostenfeld 1916). From late August to late October 1914 he collected in south-western and southern-central W. Australia. On his return voyage to Europe, via Java, he collected in coastal towns on the western and north-western coasts of W. Australia, during late October and early November 1914 (Ostenfeld 1916, 1921) (Fig, 1).

Ostenfeld was a member of the International Phytogeographic Excursion to the British Isles in 1911, which studied in Ireland the flora of various districts including Killarney, Connemara and The Burren (Praeger 1912). Ostenfeld (1912) published some remarks on the floristic results of the excursion which included the description of several new subspecific taxa and the hybrid of Erica tetralix L. x E. mackaiana Bab. (E. x praegeri Ostf.). No specimen of Ostenfeld's Irish material is in DBN.

OSTENFELD'S W. AUSTRALIAN COLLECTION IN DBN

During the two and a half months he was active in W. Australia during 1914, Ostenfeld collected several hundred specimens. Ostenfeld's own material is supplemented by specimens collected by another Dane, E. Dorph-Petersen, and by several residents of W, Australia including C. Andrews, O. H. Sargent and Mrs. M. Davis (see Ostenfeld 1916, 1921). In total, Ostenfeld's "Plantae ex Australia occidentali" collection contains about 1,300 separate numbers. A complete set is housed in the Botanical Museum, Copenhagen (C) and duplicates are found in KEW, PERTH and DBN; other herbaria may contain specimens, but no enquiries have been made.

The numbers found in DBN are listed in Appendix I. The various collectors who contributed to the collection are also listed, and Ostenfeld's collecting localities with dates are given in Appendix II (see also Fig. 1). The collection in DBN includes about 670 numbers from the total of c.1300.

Maule (1974) stated that Ostenfeld's collection was numbered systematically, not chronologically. This is not fully correct. Certainly the majority of the specimens are arranged in a more or less systematic order, but the later numbers are chronologically and therefore geographically arranged. Within the first section (l-c.1130) species are roughly grouped into genera and genera are only loosely arranged in families. The sequence of numbers is as follows (the series are approximate due to the incomplete collection in DBN)

1-7(?)

Pteridophytes

Collected in S. W .Australia including Geraldton and Carnarvon

8(?)-275

Monocotyledons

276-1131

Dicotyledons

1132-c.1160

Broome, Port Hedland, Point Samson

c1168-1197

Derby

l197-1300

numbers not used

1301-1452

Perth, York, Moora, Albany (collection made in 1915 and sent by Mrs. M. Davis).

Ostenfeld (1921) noted that the bulk of his collection came from the south-western ("extra-tropical") part of Western Australia, and as the collection contained mostly well-known plants he did not consider it worth while publishing a full list of the collection. He did note that a few of the plants he collected were undescribed species; some of his specimens are types of species described by himself or others (see below).

In collecting Ostenfeld appears to have been thorough; his material includes many small ephemeral taxa that are easily overlooked. He also collected adventive plant species and the collection is remarkable for the large number of such taxa included. Many collectors faced with a flora as "peculiar and beautiful" (Ostenfeld 1921) as that of W. Australia might tend to ignore non-native species, but Ostenfeld seems to have been interested in the adventive flora. Mrs. Davis’ collection made in 1915 (sent to Ostenfeld in Copenhagen - see Ostenfeld 1916, p.4) also contains many adventive species.

Ostenfeld's publications (1916, 1918a, 1918b, 1921), as well as that of Paulsen (1918), include illustrations, both line-drawings and photographs based on Ostenfeld numbers. Copies of the illustrations were included with specimens in the material purchased from Copenhagen. The DBN collection includes four specimens used to prepare the illustrations. These are: –

As noted above, Ostenfeld's material resulted in the publication of a number of new species and subspecific taxa. Isotypes of the following are available in DBN (most are labelled "cotype" by Ostenfeld).

All the specimens are accompanied by a printed label; with the inscription “C. H. Ostenfeld: Plantae ex Australia occidentali”, and “West-Australia 1914” [“1914” is obliterated and “1915” inserted in the case of specimens sent to Ostenfeld by Mrs. M. Davis which were collected in 1915.]. The species name, locality of collection and collector's name have been inserted by hand generally by Ostenfeld himself. Some specimens which were not determined by Ostenfeld, also bear the name of the determining authority (who included Ove Paulsen, Carl Christensen, and J. H. Maiden; for full list see Ostenfeld 1921, p.5). Each specimen is numbered. In a few cases, DBN specimens have a hand-written field label attached. These all appear to be in Ostenfeld's handwriting, and many are written in Danish; data on habitat, flower colour and habit are on these labels.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to thank Dr. A. Fox Maule, Botanical Museum, Copenhagen, for providing information on Carl Ostenfeld and his collections. The catalogue of DBN specimens was prepared by E. C. N ., with the assistance of Nuala McLoughlin and Finola Reid, Botanical Assistants at the National Botanic Gardens. Miss Reid's and Miss McLoughlin’s work in mounting, labelling and incorporating the specimens is gratefully acknowledged.

The specimens in DBN are listed here according to Ostenfeld's numbers. The species names are those applied by Ostenfeld; in each case the names and authorities used by Ostenfeld are exactly listed. Where recent taxonomic works referred to Ostenfeld's specimens, new names have been included in square [ ] brackets to correspond to present taxonomic and nomenclatural opinions.

The collecting locality, date of collection and collector's name is given for each specimen; in some cases additional data, on habit or ecology, have been omitted for reasons of space. (Perth (KP) = King's Park, Perth). The collectors are indicated by the following abbreviated forms:

CHO

C. E. H. Ostenfeld

CA

C. Andrews

ED

E. Douglas

EDP

E. Dorph-Petersen

DrL

Dr .Lessing

GD

Miss G. Davis

MD

Mrs. M. Davis

MH

Mrs. Hardman

OHS

O. H. Sargent.

The numbers listed are those given on the DBN specimens; a few pairs of specimens have the same number though the individual specimens belong to different species. It seems that Ostenfeld made a few mistakes in numbering specimens.